Fortescue-backed concentrated solar hydrogen tech graduates to pilot phase

Resources giant Fortescue has committed to the next phase of advancing a novel green hydrogen technology that promises to decouple it from the cost of electricity, removing what is considered to be a key barrier to scale for the nascent renewable hydrogen industry.

Stage 2 of the collaboration with Sparc Hydrogen – a joint venture majority owned by ASX-listed Sparc Technologies with shares also held by the University of Adelaide and Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries – will see the construction and testing of a first-of-kind pilot plant focusing on Sparc’s innovative photocatalytic water splitting (PWS) technology.

The PWS process offers an alternative to producing green hydrogen via electrolysers powered by vast amounts of renewables, instead using only sunlight, water and a photocatalyst – in this case, concentrated solar.

Fortescue is committing $1.48 million for this stage of the project, giving it a 36% stake in the joint venture, with Sparc holding a 36% ownership share and the University of Adelaide 28%.

News of the JV’s progress sent Sparc’s small-cap stock up 9% to 19 cents.

Sparc’s stock improvement likely comes from positive timeline announcements, including that the Stage 2 development is progressing with front-end engineering design (FEED) and site planning approvals are expected by the end of the month.

The big challenge right now is the efficiency of that photocatalyst material,” University of Adelaide’s Professor Gregory Metha said. He explained that the photocatalyst in the pilot plant need only be half as efficient as a competing photovoltaic system (20-25%) since the plant will not have the capex of the electrolyser, nor the cost of the electricity.

“We need to demonstrate what the plant is going to look like, so that’s where our work is focusing,” Metha said. “Our commercialisation manager here at the university likens it to us designing a car that is agnostic to the fuel.”

Japan’s Shinshu University has agreed to supply the photocatalyst materials to the Roseworthy site in Adelaide, whereas the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract is still under review.

For Fortescue, the project restates the company’s interest in building its green hydrogen portfolio, having last year performed a restructure that put its ambitious goal to produce 15 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually by 2030 on hold and result in the loss of 700 jobs from the company.

Equipment procurement is already underway and the pilot plant is anticipated to finish construction by mid-2025. The finished plant will test PWS via semi-continuous operation of an ‘on-sun’ plant using concentrated solar mirrors, advancing the reactor technology readiness level (TRL) from 5 to at least 6.